More Traffic Does Not Mean More Conversions or Sales

More Traffic Does Not Mean More Conversions or Sales

Let me repeat that. More traffic doesn’t mean that you will have more sales or conversions. Many people believe because they get more traffic they will have more sales and, generally speaking, there is no correlation.

Generally speaking.

What they want is targeted traffic. You can have a thousand hits a day from random Johns and Janes, but if there was never any interest in buying, then that traffic is useless. When you have traffic from targeted buyers, the difference is substantial.

The next logical question, of course, is “where should I go to get that targeted traffic?”

This depends on several different factors like:

the type of product you offer

the market

how many and what type of competitors you have

how much search volume there is for your product

Fear of the Unknown

Though there are many factors to consider, the one thing you shouldn’t fear in today’s marketing world is trying something new. If what you’re currently doing isn’t working, you must be willing to adjust and adapt.

A Quick Case Study in Audience Targeting

After making a few changes in marketing strategies, a business experienced a 78% drop in users to the site. However, the number of transactions stayed relatively the same. (increased from 19 to 20).

After looking at the data, we noticed a significant reduction in social media ads, and after talking with the client, there was also a reduction in paid search, direct traffic, and a small decrease in referrals.

Now, that doesn’t mean that those channels were not good ways to market this product, but to lose them without an impact on sales means they could use some adjustment.

Paid search, social ads, Facebook and Google are without a doubt the most prominent players for driving traffic. So perhaps the strategy needed to change inside these platforms to encourage the right type of traffic and not just general traffic.

After speaking further with this client, we found they moved a significant percentage of funds into influencer marketing. Nothing against influencer marketing but it was costing the same as the previous channels and didn’t substantially increase transactions.

The same concept applies here as the previous channels in that, with different strategies there could be a more significant impact in cost vs. conversion. To be fair, this was a new brand, and they weren’t well known in the marketplace. If there are many competitors then it’s going to be difficult.

The moral of this story is to make sure that you are making data-driven marketing decisions. Review your data make sure you see what’s working and what’s not based on changes made within your marketing plan.